Dan is a 2009 graduate of the Ohio University meteorology program. He grew up in Athens County and actually served as an intern at the Scalia Lab as a senior in high school. While at Ohio University, Dan was a member of the US Air Force Reserve Officers Training Corps and commissioned in 2009 as an Air Force Weather Officer. Dan served 10 years on active duty including: two deployments to the Middle East, a two-year assignment to South Korea, and stateside assignments to Shaw AFB, SC, and the Pentagon.
Dan is currently a reservist with the US Air Force and works as a Senior Strategy Consultant in the Intelligence Community, specializing in Geo-spatial Intelligence and technological advancements. Dan and his wife reside in Washington, D.C., however, they make frequent trips back to Athens to visit friends and family.
Joe grew up in Mentor, Ohio and was always fascinated by the weather. He decided to pursue a career in Meteorology and chose Ohio University to follow those dreams. He ended up graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Meteorology from Ohio University in June 2006 and took his first job as a Marine Forecaster for Wilkins Weather Technologies based in Houston, Texas. His job entailed Marine forecasting, which specialized in wind/wave reports, tropical cyclone (formation and tracking), as well as cargo ship oceanic crossings.
As of 2012, Joe changed career paths and took a job in the Aviation field at Rockwell Collins ARINCDirect (in Houston, Texas), where he is currently a Senior International Flight Operations Coordinator. His duties include arranging flight services for corporate and private aviation across the globe. Joe loves his current job and still forecasts on the side as a hobby. More importantly, he is a proud Alumni of the Ohio University Meteorology Club!
Tom is a 2013 graduate of Ohio University with a Bachelor of Science in Meteorology and a minor in Mathematics. While enrolled at Ohio University, Tom served as President of OUCAMS, as well as Cadet Commander of Air Force ROTC Detachment 650. Two years after earning his degree and his commission from Ohio University, Tom attended graduate school at Florida State University and earned his Master of Science in Meteorology in 2017. Tom is currently a Captain in the United States Air Force and is serving as a Flight Commander at the 21st Operational Weather Squadron at Kapaun Air Station, Germany. As Flight Commander, he leads a team of 47 Airmen and Sailors through 24/7 forecast production, which supports all military operations throughout both Europe and Africa. Upon finishing his assignment in May of 2020, Tom and his wife will move to Misawa Air Base, Japan, where he will assume responsibility as the Weather Flight Commander in charge of all base weather operations.
During his free time, Tom spends every opportunity to travel throughout Europe. Additionally, he spends many of his weekends throughout the winter months skiing in the Swiss and Austrian Alps. Tom is an avid sports fan and will regularly support the Pittsburgh Pirates, Steelers, Penguins, and the Florida State Seminoles. He is also an avid soccer fan and will regularly attend 1. FC Kaiserslautern games as a season ticket holder.
Michael is a 2005 graduate of the Ohio University meteorology program, and currently holds the position of Exercise Program Manager with the National Exercise Division of Homeland Security and FEMA’s National Preparedness Directorate. He is responsible for enhancing the nation’s preparedness through a process of testing capabilities, validating plans, discovering gaps and weaknesses, highlighting lessons learned and recommending corrective actions. In addition to terrorism prevention, Michael has worked on natural hazard scenarios, including earthquakes and hurricanes.
Before working for DHS, Mike was employed with the State of South Carolina Emergency Management Division as an Emergency Preparedness Coordinator under Response Operations. He was responsible for preparedness and response coordination in an eight-county area in the northeast quadrant of the state, including Myrtle Beach.
Sara graduated in 2016 with a B.S. in Meteorology and a minor in mathematics. She was the Fundraising Chair for OUCAMS in 2013-2014, and the Secretary for OUCAMS in the 2015-2016 school year. Sara was a forecaster for Scalia Lab from 2013-2016 as either a student, volunteer, or as a paid employee. In the summer of 2015 she interned at the Cuyahoga County Office of Emergency Management in Cleveland, OH. Since her sophomore year she has been working on a research project with Dr. Houser. This research is being written into a publication, during the summer of 2016, by Dr. Houser and Sara will be a contributing author. She will be pursuing a Master’s degree in Atmospheric Sciences at Ball State University as a graduate assistant in the Department of Geography. In her free time, she enjoys scrapbooking, reading, playing with her dog Lucca, hanging out with friends, and planning her wedding.
Jim received a B.S. in Geography-Meteorology from Ohio University in 1999, and an M.S. in Geography in 2001. He also served as Associate Director of Scalia Lab during his graduate years from 1999-2001. He currently is the Warning Coordination Meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Jackson, KY, and has been in the position since April 2009. He is responsible for managing inter-agency communications, public education programs and weather safety awareness campaigns and is active in promoting the NWS StormReady Program.
Prior to moving to Jackson, Jim worked at the NWS in Billings, MT as a general forecaster from 2001-2007 and primarily focused on wildfire spot forecasting and forest management weather support. Jim was a Senior Forecaster at the NWS in Louisville, KY from 2007-2009 as well.
Alek Krautmann is a program analyst and science advisor for NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS) headquarters in Washington DC. He has also served as a NOAA Program Coordination Officer in providing senior staff support to the office of the NOAA administrator and as a policy advisor for satellites and environmental data. Prior to work in DC Alek was a meteorologist at the NWS New Orleans/Baton Rouge office. He was previously a Research Associate with the Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program (SCIPP), which is a NOAA Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments team at the Oklahoma Climatological Survey in Norman, OK. Alek works to promote an informed society; one that anticipates and is able to respond to the weather and climate hazards in our world.
Alek is a 2012 graduate of Ohio University (M.S. Geography). He was Associate Director at Scalia Lab from 2010 to 2012 and taught undergraduate meteorology lab courses. During this time he also served as co-chair of the American Meteorological Society Student Conference Planning Committee and completed the AMS Summer Policy Colloquium. Alek is a 2010 graduate of the University of Oklahoma (B.S. Meteorology), including a semester abroad at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.
Emily graduated from Ohio University in 2008 with a B.S. in Meteorology. After college, she moved to Washington, DC where she worked first for the American Meteorological Society’s Education Program and then for Eastern Research Group, an environmental consulting firm. She also earned a M.S. in Environmental Sciences and Policy from Johns Hopkins University in 2012. Since 2014, Emily’s husband’s career with the U.S. Air Force has taken their family all over the world. She currently works remotely for HeartLands Conservancy, an environmental non-profit based in southwestern Illinois.
Rosemary Kanters is currently a chemistry Ph.D. student at the Pennsylvania State University. She graduated from Ohio University in 2013 with a major in chemistry and minor in meteorology. She grew up in North Lawrence, OH, and graduated with honors from Tuslaw High School in 2009. Rosemary enjoys hiking, camping, and traveling and is a part of the American Chemical Society and the American Meteorological Society, along with its local chapter. In Summer 2011, she conducted atmospheric aerosol research at the Pennsylvania State University as a part of the NSF’s Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program, and she spent Summer 2012 conducting similar research in the Chemical Sciences Division at NOAA’s Earth Systems Research Laboratory in Boulder, CO as a part of the Ernest F. Hollings Scholarship Program. Rosemary currently studies interfacial bonding between metal nanoparticles and transition metal oxide supports for catalysis purposes. After completing graduate school, Rosemary plans to conduct environmental research in industry or for a government organization.
Megan graduated from Ohio University in 2016 with a B.S. in Meteorology and a minor in mathematics. She was a 3-year officer in OUCAMS, including being the President during her senior year, and was also the Geography Learning Community Leader. For both her junior and senior year, Megan was a member of Dr. Fogt’s research group on Antarctic climate, and was a contributing author on three published papers. Her interest in polar meteorology led her to Ohio State University for graduate school, where she was a TA in the Department of Geography and did her research with the Polar Meteorology group at the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center. Megan completed her M.S. degree and thesis on Southern Hemisphere mid- and high-latitude temperature trends in the summer of 2018, with the associated manuscript published in the October 2019 edition of the Journal of Climate.
After graduating from Ohio State, Megan began her career as a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Bismarck, North Dakota. She is very active in the climate program at the office, as well as with outreach events, and has enjoyed experiencing everything from tornadoes to blizzards. Outside of work, she loves traveling, hiking, watching sports, and trying out new recipes.
